I know this is a VERY broad question, but, which classes would you more experienced players say would be the most fun?
I've come from DAoC and am looking for something probably more PvE geared. I also tend to favour casters, or hybrid tanks, nothing all out tanky (if that's a word). Oh, and i'm not too big on healing classes.
I don't know DAoC, so I can't guess at your style from that.
Just so you know, almost all the L2 classes are some kind of hybrid, whether or not players think about it that way.
A fun "hybrid tank" is the Gladiator (tank/damage-dealer). A slightly casterish hybrid tank is the Bladedancer (mini-tank/mini-buffer/semi-DD). Neither one works as a pure tank, due to weak/nonexistant "hate" skills and lower defensive ability, but both do more damage than pure tanks and the BD (bladedancer) is a grab-bag of abilities.
If you wanna go all out and spend Adena like Donald Trump, then roll with either an Archer or a Caster. For casters, Necromongers or Spell Holwers is where my vote would be.
If you're not like Donald Trump and trying to pinch every adena you can, then a Tank or a Buffer Class might be your call. For buffers, some popular choices are: BladeDancer, Shilen Elder and Prophet.
Tanks, I hear that Dark Avengers got screwed pretty hard for their summons cause now they gotta donate their Liver and Kidney for running their summons. But Shilin Knight is a good class.
Bleh I want a Cubic too or at least an abysal quiver.
Note to NCSoft, Pls add those Abysal Quivers. I mean why not, SRs/PR's have magic skills, they shouldn't have to run out of the dang arrows!!! It's superbly annoying when I'm out of arrows and worse yet, out of mats to craft arrows :p
since your not too big on healing classes i wouldnt suggest a SE, EE or bishop... prophet might be alright, being a buffer that can solo better than the others, you might also want to consider an orc mystic of some sort... havent played one seriously myself but they get a few good spells, mostly aoe and party buffs.. not much of a healer at all considering thier heals are group only and regen instead of instant, and those few who i do know both OL and WC hunt pve pretty well.
Another class you might like on caster side is a summoner type.. necromancer, ES, warlock etc.. make the pet tank for your caster, and while raising it from 1-40 if you change your mind before doing 2nd class change you can always go the route of all-out nuker... and as for pure nukers, only Darkelves and human classes get BTM which will trade a little hp for a little mp, kind of handy for pve :P however, the light elf nuker, the SPS casts quite a bit faster than the others, so it would depend on your preference there, darkelf has stronger mattack in general, and there are differences in skills also that should probably be taken into consideration, i cant help you there since i dont play nukers and therefore have no experience personally with them.
For a sort-of-tank... gladi is good in pve, debatable in pvp depending on who you talk to.. Tyrant is also very nice pve, got to play one of those on the test server was a lot of fun, BD and SwS are both heavy armor wearers who have group buffs, from what i see pretty good in pve, DA was mentioned, thier decent in both pve and pvp.. tank class that has a summon which as was also mentioned has become quite expensive to keep in C4. Ok, i've probably missed one or two but i cant think of any other atm (sorry whoever i missed!) but that should give you a nice range to experiment in... and hey, if you start one and turns out you dont like it, you can always roll a new one ;)
Another class you might like on caster side is a summoner type.. necromancer, ES, warlock etc.. make the pet tank for your caster, and while raising it from 1-40 if you change your mind before doing 2nd class change you can always go the route of all-out nuker... and as for pure nukers, only Darkelves and human classes get BTM which will trade a little hp for a little mp, kind of handy for pve :P however, the light elf nuker, the SPS casts quite a bit faster than the others, so it would depend on your preference there, darkelf has stronger mattack in general, and there are differences in skills also that should probably be taken into consideration, i cant help you there since i dont play nukers and therefore have no experience personally with them.
Slight correction thought. Necromongers are far more powerful in PvP than Spell Howlers. Even in PvE they are pretty darn effective. The summons necro's have are not really a requirement to level with, they can level fine w/o em, although a lot more dangerious.
If it wasn't for the horrific run speed of humans, I'd myself go with a necro.
For Body to mind thing, you actually have that reversed a bit, you sacrifice a lot of HP for little of MP. My SH is only 44 right now, and B2M lvl 2 takes 200 HP and returns me 35 MP.
But if done right, especially properfly buffed, you can hunt for hours w/o rest.
For a hybrid tank you might also pick Destroyer, high HP, high dmg output, uses heavy armors and can deal the most physical dmg in this game(11k patk anyone? ;) ).